• About
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Subscribe

Real Foods

Good Nutrition Doesn't Have to Break the Bank!

  • Healthy Eating
  • Nutrition
  • Herbs & Spices
  • Essential Fats
  • Grow Your Own
  • Juicing
  • How To

Cooling the Fire of Inflammation with Turmeric

By Sherri Stockman ND CHA

Turmeric Enlivens Food And Helps Ease Inflammation

If your idea of a great evening includes digging into a rich curry at your local Indian restaurant, you’ve got lots of company. Indian food has gone from exotic fare to firm favorite in American cuisine. Indian Curry

An added bonus to the flavorful experience is turmeric, the spice that gives Indian delicacies that distinctive reddish-orange hue.

In its native land, turmeric is also prized by practitioners of Ayurveda (India’s traditional health system) as a whole-body cleanser.

Now scientists are deciphering this plant’s healing powers, especially that of its primary chemical constituent, curcumin.

What they’ve found: You can use a spice that fires the tongue to cool the fire of inflammation.

Unhealthy Heat

Inflammation does serve a useful purpose. Cut a finger or catch a cold, and your immune system uses this heat-generating process to help set things right.

But when your body can’t hit the inflammation off-switch, bad stuff happens, like joint pain and swelling.

Curcumin is believed to help tame inflammation in a manner similar to aspirin, so it’s not surprising that research has validated the herb’s traditional use in treating arthritis.

“I recommend turmeric for all inflammatory disorders, including arthritis, tendonitis, and autoimmune conditions,” says alternative medicine authority Andrew Weil, MD.

Lab tests show that turmeric may also help those who suffer from inflammatory bowel disease, and it may even regulate immune function in people with asthma.

Challenging Cancer

Inflammation that isn’t as obvious as an achy knee or balky shoulder may actually be more dangerous; studies have linked chronic inflammation to a number of serious conditions, including cancer.

Fortunately, researchers have also discovered that curcumin can do battle against this feared disease, at least in experimental settings.

Evidently, turmeric fights cancer at several stages:

  • Cancer cells need to grow and divide; curcumin stymies them.
  • Tumors need to grow a new blood supply; curcumin hinders those efforts.
  • Breast cancer often needs estrogen to thrive; curcumin latches onto cells, shutting out estrogen.
  • Turmeric even neutralizes free radicals (unstable, cell-damaging molecules).

 

Studies continue on how curcumin can help fight cancer in humans.

Early results have been interesing: for example, scientists think that the use of turmeric in cooking might help explain the notably lower rates of childhood leukemia in Asia.

The tasty spice may also shield those undergoing radiation treatment from burns and blisters.

The News Only Gets Better

Rats prone to multiple sclerosis developed few or no symptoms after recieving curcumin. According to the prestigious journal Science (4/23/04), curcumin has countered the genetic damage that causes the lung disorder cystic fibrosis in mice.

Tasty Turmeric

Curcumin may also protect the liver against alcohol-related damage. Even turmeric’s traditional use as a tummy tamer has gotten the thumbs-up from the lab.

Elegant to the eye, tasty to the tongue, beneficial to the body: Turmeric is a true culinary and therapeutic superstar.

Back to Cooking with Herbs

 

Back to Healthy Eating

Back to Healthy Nutrients

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Related

Filed Under: Herbs & Spices Tagged With: arthritis, aryurveda, asthma, cancer, curcumin, curry, inflammation, tendonitis, turmeric




Please let us know what you think in the comment section below...

Recent Posts

Artificial Sweeteners Damage Your GI Tract

Artificial Sweeteners Damage Your GI Tract

Break These Kitchen Habits

Break These Kitchen Habits

Juicing 101

Juicing 101

Butter Is A Health Food?

Butter Is A Health Food?

Fermented Foods – A Quick History

Fermented Foods – A Quick History

Article Categories

  • Avoid
  • Detox
  • Essential Fats
  • Featured
  • Food Safety
  • Grow Your Own
  • Healthy Eating
  • Herbs & Spices
  • How To
  • Juicing
  • Nutrition

© 1999–2019 The Vitality Path, Inc · WP Theme by Genesis · Site by HealerBiz · Legal · Log in